


Lightning Blue Eyes

by simplesetgo



Category: Legend of the Seeker
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Domestic, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Military, Reunions, Shower Sex, Tribadism, Women in Uniform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-18
Updated: 2011-12-18
Packaged: 2017-10-27 12:59:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/296111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simplesetgo/pseuds/simplesetgo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cara's emotional return from active service Over There.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lightning Blue Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> _I caught a glimpse I thought was you  
>  And I was overwhelmed  
> _  
> —The Secret Machines

Cara got her first blast of fresh air in twelve hours while disembarking the airliner. Blowing in from an open service hatch, a cool, soft breeze that smelled of an earlier rain was markedly different from what she’d left behind—the dry and scorching heat of Iraqi desert. She was quickly shuffled along with the rest of the passengers, but that scent had made it real. She was home again.  
   
Which is why she paused in the middle of the jetway, standing aside and joining her hands behind her to catch a moment. Her deep blue dress uniform caught more than a few lingering glances as people filed by. Two uniformed members of her company that happened to be from the same town stopped short before her, their easy grins turning to grim expressions as they snapped to salute. Cara stood straight, saluted, and said, “Carry on, Marines.”  
   
They did so under the wide and watchful eyes of a child being hurried along by his mother. Cara knew that with the exception of the two privates who’d just passed, not a single person knew what the bars on her uniform meant. Why the five medals had weight far beyond the physical where they were pinned above her left breast.

She’d stopped because she wasn’t sure what she was going to find in the airport’s waiting area. Kahlan knew the date of her return; she’d said she would be there when they last talked on the phone. Her soft voice making that promise was a memory worn from use. But that was months ago, and Kahlan’s letters had been coming less and less often since she was deployed two years ago. The distance, Cara felt, had become more than physical. It was the hardest thing in her six years of service.  
   
She wasn’t the only one in the Corps with a girlfriend or significant other back home. Seven of the men and two of the women under her command had received the dreaded final letter, and she’d seen what they had done to cope. Some threw themselves into PT, some got into reckless trouble, and some confined themselves to barracks to lay on their cots and stare at the ceiling.  
   
Cara hadn’t wanted to even think what she would do.  
   
So she prepared herself now, as passengers streamed by her, most giving her wide berth. The occasional person gave her a nod, and an elderly man paused to thank her for her service. Cara hadn’t known what to say, so she merely nodded and he smiled and moved on. It occurred to her that maybe he knew about the metal on her chest.  
   
Calmly, she stepped into the crowd and let herself be carried through the jetway to the gate. She wouldn’t see Kahlan there. There was no reason for her to expect to see Kahlan there. Kahlan probably forgot, or maybe she was busy, or maybe she didn’t want to come. Maybe she was at someone else’s place, with someone else, and knew today was the day but chose not to come. Cara’s jaw clenched, and her fists followed suit at her sides.  
   
It was with this tight posture that she stepped aside once through the gate and, hoping against hope, scanned the crowd inside the airport with quick, practiced eyes. Even with the preparation of denial, her chest still felt heavy with disappointment at the lack of a familiar face. The two of her men she’d seen in passing each had a girl in their arms; one a blonde and one a brunette. Cara frowned.  
   
The frown deepened into a scowl as she spotted the small group of people holding signs across the main thoroughfare. The few days around this one marked a large return of military men and women to their homes across the country. The picketers held signs accusing them of all sorts of base atrocities. One of them, holding a sign claiming soldiers were slaughtering civilians for oil, was a kid, no more than eighteen. Cara thought she’d like to educate him on some things about the world.  
   
She knew better than to actually do anything about it, but she took a good, long look at their faces as she headed to claim her baggage. She wanted to recognize them if she ever met them out of uniform. Her inspection was cut short when a warm voice boomed from her side. “Excuse me Captain, can I help you find anyone?”  
   
Cara turned and saw Richard’s huge grin. He was poised and at the ready, clearly waiting for her to deliver her signature half-hearted chuckle or laugh. She took a breath. “Is—”  
   
 _Oof._ One thing hadn’t changed in two years. Richard really liked hugging people. Cara grimaced over his shoulder at the constrictive greeting, offering two pats on the back in return. “We all missed you,” he said sincerely, holding her at arm’s length. “Oh, wow.” He nodded at her so-called bars and stars. “You’ve got more of those than last I saw.”  
   
“Yeah, they gave them to me for being the best at everything ever,” Cara said. “Is Kahlan here?”  
   
His face fell, and Cara’s heart dropped like a stone. She promptly chastised herself for letting it rise in the first place, but seeing a familiar face had made her feel much better. She smiled awkwardly, and hit his shoulder. “Hey, at least you’re here. You and Anna are having a kid, I heard.”  
   
Richard was still frowning, and Cara realized he was looking around. “Yeah,” he said. “That’s…definitely happening. Still not over it. Kahlan was right here…”  
   
“What? Really? Where? She came?” Cara’s voice belied her desperation, but she was well past caring.  
   
Richard laughed. “Of course she came. She took the entire week off from work, and on the way over here she told me she couldn’t sleep last night.”  
   
Cara felt a grin threatening to steal its way onto her mouth. She forced her gaze to the picketers, and that did the trick.  
   
“Hey!” Richard bellowed suddenly, calling out across the loud drone of dozens of reunions around them. “Kahlan! Over here!”  
   
Then Cara saw her, emerging from the women’s restroom farther down. She promptly grinned like an idiot. Of course she was in the restroom. That was why she hadn’t been at the gate. A visibly pregnant Anna was with her and Cara grinned wider. Kahlan was such a girl, always going to the restroom with other women. She’d never understood it.  
   
Then Kahlan saw her, finally meeting Cara’s eyes, and blindly shoved her bag at Anna, who took it with a laugh. Kahlan ran to her, hair flying behind her with the world’s biggest smile on her face, like every dream Cara had never allowed herself to have. From the corner of her eye, Cara noticed picket-guy staring at the sprinting woman—along with others. She promptly stepped forward and opened her arms, making sure everyone knew Kahlan was hers.  
   
Kahlan careened into her, breathless, and pulled her into a hug so tight Richard would be ashamed. But this time, Cara wrapped her arms tight and returned it with every ounce of her strength—which was considerable, she liked to think. Kahlan laughed into her neck and Cara lost herself in the familiar scent  of her—it made her think of gentleness and strength and hope, and many good memories. Anna and Richard watched, both beaming. Richard’s hand settled around his wife’s hip, hugging her to him.  
   
“Cara, oh God, I missed you so much,” Kahlan said, and then, finally, _finally_ , Cara felt Kahlan’s warm, soft lips press to her own. Cara milked the moment for all it was worth, stringing it on with breathless presses of her lips. Hands cupping her neck, Kahlan drank in every bit of it that Cara offered—until Cara tried to slip a little tongue. That earned her a sharp look and an embarrassed glance around her. Cara lifted her brow innocently, thumb smoothing over Kahlan’s cheek.  
   
“You haven’t changed one bit,” Kahlan laughed. “I love you.”  
   
“I know,” Cara said with a grin. It was one of their old jokes, stemmed from the eons it took Cara to use such a scary word herself. Kahlan smiled at her, then her brow furrowed as she kissed Cara again. Little did Kahlan know that Cara was eyeing and flicking off picket-guy, who was watching open-mouthed as Kahlan finally let her have a little tongue.  
   
It’s not like any of the medals on her chest were for good conduct.  
   
Richard, it turned out, had a new minivan. Of course he had a minivan. Out in the airport’s packed parking lot, Cara tried not to look overly amused as Richard, leaning back against the hood with arms crossed, extolled the virtues of his family’s new vehicle, listing out statistics and specs with his customary enthusiasm. Cara nodded, and nodded some more. Thankfully Kahlan came to her side and grabbed her hand once she’d finished loading Cara’s luggage. “Richard,” she said sweetly, “if you don’t drive Cara home, I will. And…well, look.”  
   
Richard turned to see Anna staring at him from inside the minivan, quite strapped in and ready to go.  
   
“Oh,” he said. “Right. Let’s get you home, Cara.”  
   
Cara squeezed Kahlan’s hand, threading their fingers together. She was already home. Kahlan looked at her with eyes soft, like she understood.  
   
Cara brightened once she realized that the minivan’s back-most seats would let her and Kahlan sit together, but as she took off her uniform cap and climbed in, her face fell. There was a child seat strapped in the middle. “Did they have a kid I don’t know about?” asked Cara in a whisper as the pair settled into the separate middle seats, painfully apart. Kahlan shook her head, and extended her hand to Cara across the small divide. Cara took it. She wasn’t letting go until they were at their apartment.  
   
“The USS Cypher is now departing,” Richard said in a deep, officious voice. “Please keep hands and feet inside the vehicle. HAL, close the pod bay doors, please!”  
   
Cara rolled her eyes as he pushed the console button that slid the side door shut with a mechanical hum and latch. Anna turned in her seat a bit, throwing a knowing look to Cara. “Yes,” she said. “He does that.”  
   
“I’m sorry,” Cara said. Anna just smiled.  
   
Once on the highway, silence settled inside the van. Which was fine by Cara and Kahlan, who were speaking just fine without words, and probably Anna, who had her eyes closed. But Richard’s gaze kept darting back to Cara in the rearview mirror. He was obviously chock full of questions. No doubt he wanted stories of her experiences “over there”. Those would come in time, but Kahlan’s fingers were teasing her hand, her lips had a familiar twist to them, and when she adjusted her blouse to show a little more skin, Cara had a hard time not commanding Richard to drive far, far faster.  
   
“So,” she said instead. “You still working on that old Camaro?”  
   
Richard smiled hugely, and began to talk. Cara listened, offering advice about aftermarket header replacement, and feigned disinterest to the brunette beside her. If Kahlan wanted to drive her mad, she’d return the favor. Unfortunately for Cara, Kahlan had always been better at this game. Richard’s voice droned on, and Cara soon lost herself in blue eyes promising much more than holding hands.  
   
Like a lot of things that day, it was a strange experience rolling into their apartment complex. Two years was a long time. Some landscaping was different, and there was an entirely new building towering to their left. Before she knew it, the van was parked in front of their place. “Destination achieved,” Richard announced. “Thank you for using Cypher Transport Services, Incorporated. We hope you enjoy your stay at Kahlan and Cara’s love shack. Do remember to lock the door while—ow!”  
   
“What he’s trying to say,” Anna said as Richard glared at her and rubbed his injured shoulder, “is that we’re very glad to have you back, Cara.”  
   
“Thank you,” Cara said dutifully. She was poised in her seat, seatbelt off, ready to get behind a closed door with Kahlan.  
   
“Once she’s settled in we’ll come visit,” Kahlan said warmly. “I promise.”  
   
“Hey,” Cara said before she lost the nerve. “Congratulations on your…baby. That’s coming.”  
   
Anna gave her a glowing smile and thanked her. Richard had never looked prouder. Cara got out of the van as fast as she could.  
   
She nearly forgot the luggage—which Kahlan mirthfully noticed—but soon everything was inside. Predictably, Richard got out of the van to give her a goodbye hug, even though she’d probably see him again tomorrow. “Welcome home,” he said.  
   
Cara nodded her thanks and took him by the shoulder. There were certain things she’d sworn to herself that she’d say to certain people if she made it back alive. “You’ll make a great dad,” she told him. “Don’t worry.”  
   
Richard blinked. “Thanks…who are you and what have you done with Cara? Did they send back a cyborg?” He paused, brow pinching. “How bad it is that I’d expect a cyborg to have better emotional display than the Cara I know?”  
   
Cara grinned. “Pretty bad,” she said, and turned away.  
   
The apartment door had barely slammed shut behind them before they were on each other, bodies pressed tight and lips crushed together. Kahlan’s tongue jutted hard in Cara’s mouth, and the sweet taste of her kiss was so much better than Cara remembered. Kahlan started urging them toward the bedroom but Cara remembered with dismay that it had been a rather long flight. She really needed to clean up. “Kahlan,” she groaned. “I need a shower. Can you survive ten minutes?”  
   
“I could give you a bath with my tongue,” Kahlan whispered, hands resting on Cara’s hips. As if to demonstrate, she nuzzled Cara’s neck and licked at the skin there, making nerves tingle all the way down to her legs.  
   
“That is such a good idea. But…I really do need a shower.”  
   
“Then leave your uniform on for now,” Kahlan said. She stepped back, grabbed the hem of her shirt, and pulled it off with one swift motion, running a hand through her hair. Her black lace bra was not a little revealing, showing off deep cleavage and the tops of her breasts, and a glance down revealed the banding of panties that matched. Cara stared as breaths filled Kahlan’s taut belly, lifted her chest. “I waited years for this,” Kahlan said softly. “So not ten minutes. Not one. Cara.”  
   
Cara answered by seizing her head and crushing their lips together. Their path to the bedroom became littered with Kahlan’s clothing: bra on the kitchen counter, shoes and socks by the couch, denim jeans draped over the computer chair. Cara’s mouth tasted her skin everywhere she could standing up, hands never leaving Kahlan’s heavy breasts. Once through the door they fell on the bed together, and her pulse jumped at the sight of Kahlan bare beneath her, body on offer and eyes pleading. How many times had she imagined this very thing with practiced fingers between her own thighs?  
   
After divesting herself of her dress jacket and heels, she settled before Kahlan’s legs. She tugged laced panties down from the curve of her hips, Kahlan grunting as she kicked them off, and realized this was too good to be true. Nothing seemed wrong here; nothing had been answered, nothing addressed; why had she felt so alone over there? Why had Kahlan abandoned her?  
   
Cara took a breath and put it out of her mind. It was easy: Kahlan’s sex was smooth shaven for Cara, her wetness clearly visible. Cara couldn’t ask for a better distraction. Head between Kahlan’s legs, she kissed and nipped the pale skin around her center, working her up like she’d done so many times before. She felt Kahlan’s hand fist in her hair, tug at her scalp, and finally gave her what she needed: her tongue dipped into soft and pink flesh, thumb working circles above that had Kahlan moaning and shuddering. Arousal built quickly between her own legs as the heavy taste of Kahlan filled her mouth. It wasn’t long before Kahlan was coming fast and hard, hips pushing against Cara’s mouth, and Cara drank from her, licking into her sex as she finished.  
   
Slowly she kissed her way up Kahlan’s body, pausing to press her ear to Kahlan’s chest and listen to her slowing heart. It made her own ache, and she couldn’t tell if that was good or bad. Kahlan’s fingers brushed through Cara’s hair. “Come here,” she said. “Cara, what’s wrong?”  
   
Cara frowned. “It wasn’t good?”  
   
“No, it…Cara.”  
   
She kissed Kahlan’s cheek and said, “Nothing’s wrong. I’m grabbing that shower.”  
   
Minutes later the hot water was doing wonders for her body, but nothing helped the confusion in her mind. She should be relieved, happy that Kahlan was still…here, that they were still together after all, that she had friends who welcomed her home. Instead, she felt like she didn’t belong. She felt like all this was a charade. She pressed her forehead to the shower wall and turned up the hot water, just short of burning, just enough to prick at her back where it pummeled at her skin.  
   
Maybe her time over there had changed her. Before, she and Kahlan had fit together like two puzzle pieces. What if Kahlan had stayed the same but she was now damaged, edges torn? She’d killed over there, seen people with fates worse than death. Then she thought back to how Kahlan had looked at her when Cara took her hand in the minivan and didn’t let go. She still loved Cara. And probably would until she knew better. Cara groaned, fist closing with the want to punch the tiles.  
   
She didn’t hear Kahlan come in the bathroom. The steamy shower door opened, Cara turned her head, and there she was. Naked, wearing only hesitance on her face, she didn’t step in until Cara shuffled forward a bit. “God, Cara, this water is hot,” Kahlan said.  
   
“Feels good,” Cara grunted. She turned it down a bit anyway. Kahlan embraced her from behind, arms crossing around Cara’s middle, breasts sliding against Cara’s back. The spray covered them both as she set her chin on Cara’s shoulder.  
   
“What’s wrong?” she asked quietly. “You were fine; now you’re distant.”  
   
Cara laughed. It was a cruel thing, short and mocking, but it was out before she could stop it. “Distant,” she said. “That’s just…amusing.”  
   
Kahlan unhanded her. “Cara?”  
   
The tone in her voice, not quite a question—she knew what this was about. Cara didn’t want to deal with this, not right now, not ever. The weight of it made her sink to the shower’s tiled floor. She sat against the wall and tucked her knees to her chest—there was barely enough room for Kahlan to do the same beside her. Hot steam roiled in the air as the shower shot over them. “While I was over there,” Cara said after a moment, “it felt like you’d given up on me. Can you imagine what that was like? I expected to come home and have to look for you, only to find you with somebody else.”  
   
“Oh,” Kahlan said. She hadn’t removed her makeup before coming in the shower, and her mascara was running down her cheeks. It was a strange look for a face as calm as hers. Cara filled a palm with water and dabbed it clean while she waited for more words from Kahlan. None came.  
   
“That’s it?”  
   
Kahlan shook her head, as if clearing it. “I’m sorry, Cara. I shouldn’t have tried to pretend nothing…happened.”  
   
“Something happened?” asked Cara, panic blooming in her chest.  
   
“Nothing all at once. I just spent a lot of the time you were gone being mad at you. You swore you wouldn’t go without my blessing.”  
   
Cara’s head dropped. “You…”  
   
“Never gave it. Not even close. But you went anyway. You let yourself be signed right up for an overseas tour.”  
   
“You didn’t say I couldn’t go.”  
   
It sounded childish. They both knew it. Luckily, Kahlan ignored it. “Putting yourself in danger is a decision that affects more than yourself, Cara. To this day I wonder if you’re capable of understanding that. I felt like you ignored everything I said. I felt like you were being selfish. I just didn’t want to bring it up while you were over there.”  
   
Cara really didn’t have anything to say. She’d just kind of drifted through that entire weeks-long argument, choice already made. She should’ve expected it to resurface sooner or later. “It’s hard for me to give up control of my own life,” she said, at length. Her head rolled toward Kahlan. “You should know that about me by now.”  
   
“I never asked you to give up control. Just let me help steer, every once in a while. Cara, you’re here, and you’re safe, and I’m very happy about that.” Raising a gentle hand to Cara’s face, she made sure Cara was looking into her eyes. “But I won’t let that happen again.”  
   
Cara’s brow pinched. “I can’t…Kahlan, I’m a Marine. It’s what I do. Are you asking me to retire for you?”  
   
“No,” Kahlan said, stretching a leg out across the shower floor. “If you go again, I’m coming with you. I’ll live at the closest base, or something.”  
   
“It’s too dangerous over…there,” Cara said lamely, realizing too late the double standard she was finally putting into words.  
   
“I’m a tough girl,” Kahlan said. She looked down, her lips quirking in a rueful smile. “But this tough girl loves you too much to spend that much time away from you again. She couldn’t handle that, no matter how tough she is.”  
   
Cara edged her way around the idea. “Things are winding down…I might be able to push for a desk job.”  
   
Kahlan smiled at her. “You look like you just ate a lemon. You know what you should do?”  
   
“What?”  
   
“Be a drill instructor. You’d get to yell at people, and make them hate you. All day long.”  
   
Cara grinned. “It’s like you know me or something.”  
   
Kahlan stood up, slicking back her hair. Cara watched water slide down her skin for a moment—a simple pleasure completely forgotten. “Come on,” Kahlan said, extending her hand. “Let me wash your hair.”  
   
Cara rose in turn. “I can do that.”  
   
“I know that, silly. But I’m here. I can wash your hair, and do your laundry, and cook for you, and you have to let me. It’s the least you can do.”  
   
Turning to see smiling blue eyes, Cara wasn’t surprised when she was sucked into another crushing hug. “If you insist,” Cara said jokingly, into the hollow of Kahlan’s neck. “Sorry,” she added. “For everything.”  
   
“I’m sorry too,” Kahlan said. “It’s a hard situation. One of us ends up being selfish no matter what happens. If you’d stayed for me I would’ve felt guilty for making you.” She tightened her embrace, and Cara closed her eyes, not at all sure arousal was the correct reaction here—but they were both very naked, and very wet, and very much pressed together. Cara decided it wasn’t her fault.  
   
“So,” she said. “Makeup sex? Then I’ll let you wash me wherever you want.”  
   
Kahlan smirked, and kissed her deeply as her hand slipped down Cara’s belly to find her sex hot. Cara loved fucking in the shower—there was something about the soft roar of water, the way all the skin under her fingers was slick. She leaned her back to the wall and cupped Kahlan’s breasts, thumbs rolling over her nipples as Kahlan stroked her sex with two practiced fingers. She sucked kisses from Cara’s neck, and it was lucky Cara was on leave because Kahlan was definitely leaving a mark; claiming her with lips and teeth and tongue. Cara tilted her head up to better let her.  
   
Her body had missed this; the feel of Kahlan’s fingers sliding inside her, beginning to move and thrust and curl. She began to moan, and a lazy smile curled her lips. It’d been so long since she could let loose during release. Her self pleasure, when she had time for it over there, was always discreet, furtive, and painfully quiet. She let her hips rock into Kahlan’s hand. Her breasts received their own attention: the peak of one pinched and rolled between fingers, the other being pushed against by Kahlan’s own breast.  
   
Another finger earned louder moans. A quicker pace earned equally quick pants. “Kahlan,” Cara groaned. “So good, so good.”  
   
“Spirits, I missed this,” Kahlan murmured into the shell of her ear. Then Cara felt Kahlan’s tongue push in, there. It made the nerves on her side, near her hip, spark—Kahlan knew her spots, knew how to make love to her entire body. Cara grunted and took Kahlan’s hips in her hands, palms sliding to cup her ass. The wet symphony of sounds reached a feverish peak, and Cara broke, shouting, “Yes!”—simply because she could. Somehow, it made her pleasure that much more intense.  
   
Kahlan’s face came back into focus. There was a contented smile, and a kiss, and then Kahlan reached for Cara’s shampoo. “Wait,” Cara said. “Is that two years old or something?”  
   
“I bought new for you,” Kahlan said. “I have been expecting you, you know.”  
   
“You were…looking forward to me coming home,” Cara said, suddenly in awe. As Kahlan massaged foam into her scalp, Cara closed her eyes in pleasure and thought of Kahlan’s days right before this one: had she imagined Cara’s return as much as Cara did? Did she think of her when laying in bed, alone? Had she smiled when picking up Cara’s new things at the store? Maybe she’d sat on their couch late at night with their favorite blanket, watching TV, and wanted Cara’s arm around her. Cara had been so caught up in her work, in staying alive and keeping her unit in order, that it was easier to assume Kahlan wasn’t missing her than the other way around. She turned suddenly, hair full of bubbles, and got a face full of shower spray. She sputtered and leaned out of it, then asked, “Did you miss me?”  
   
Kahlan knew better than to laugh, at the question or otherwise. “Every day,” she said calmly. “Even when I was upset with you, all I wanted was you here with me.”  
   
“Oh,” Cara said. “I missed you, too.”  
   
“Just when you had your fingers between your legs, I bet.”  
   
“Not true! I mean, I wasn’t missing you when I was getting shot at, but I probably spent at least—”  
   
Kahlan laughed and pressed a finger to her lips. “I was joking, Cari. Let me finish washing your hair, then I’ll make you homemade pizza.”  
   
“Ohh, pizza,” Cara groaned. “You are so good to me. Orgasms and pizza. I couldn’t ask for more.”  
   
There was a bit of a delay before they reached the kitchen—fresh out of the shower, hair half dry and skin still damp, Cara’s desire flared up again at the sight of Kahlan’s hips swaying as she walked to their closet. Such a beautiful body—full, toned curves; smooth, ivory skin; dark hair that fell in wet tangles down her back. All hers. The more Cara drank in the sight the thirstier she became.  
   
She strode across the room, pulled Kahlan, who squeaked, into her arms, and kissed her soundly. “Yes, again,” Cara said, urging Kahlan toward the bed.  
   
“I wasn’t asking any questions,” Kahlan giggled. She collapsed onto her back and let Cara spread her legs. Cara laid in the cradle of her hips, Kahlan’s sex pressed to her belly as she took a breast into her mouth—Cara’s favorite curves. Kahlan’s hands stroked down her back, encouraging her with soft moans. She loved attention paid to her breasts, and Cara was always more than happy to oblige. (Sometimes, it became a problem.) She sucked, and kissed, and licked, and Kahlan’s nipples were soon hard peaks under Cara’s tongue, her chest flushing dark to match her cheeks.  
   
But Cara’s sex was burning with want of stimulation, so she shifted up, setting her center to Kahlan’s own. She began to thrust, shoulders bunching as she leaned to taste Kahlan’s mouth. Kahlan grabbed a pillow from the bed’s top and pushed it under her hips, making that exquisite contact easier, and Cara took full of advantage, grinding her sex against Kahlan’s, watching as a storm brewed in Kahlan’s blue eyes. It was incredible to watch, this inferno of pleasure, this most pure expression of emotion, and what it did to Kahlan. There was lightning in her eyes, thunder in her chest. Dropping kisses to Kahlan’s face, to her lips parted and her mouth panting, Cara fucked harder against her body, their sexes slick with fresh wetness.  
   
They found their release against each other, and sweat trickled down the small of Cara’s back as her orgasm clenched her muscles, whitewashed her senses for that longest moment. Kahlan signaled her own with Cara’s name desperate on her lips; she held Cara’s hips down with tight fingers, rolling her own against them until the muscles there were quivering. When it was over Cara lowered herself fully, resting her body on Kahlan’s own, breasts crushed against Kahlan’s as they shared a series of lazy kisses, each short for want of breath. “Pizza,” Cara finally mumbled against Kahlan’s cheek. “Want so bad right now.”  
   
“I can’t cook with you laying on me,” Kahlan whispered back. She made no move to shift Cara’s body, though. She even slung a leg over Cara’s, clearly wanting her lover to stay right where she was.  
   
Then, Cara’s stomach made a hungry noise. Cara smiled, and shrugged. “I guess I’ll let you put clothes on now.”  
   
Kahlan rolled her eyes. “My eternal gratitude.”  
   
Out in the kitchen, Cara leaned on the island while waiting for the inevitable request for help. Kahlan ‘cooking for Cara’ usually involved more than a few questions or requests slung her way. After all, Cara had taught her everything she knew. “I’ve got this under control,” Kahlan said, once she’d noticed Cara lingering as she moved around the kitchen, gathering ingredients. “You go watch TV or something.”  
   
Cara obediently sauntered toward the living room, figuring it’d be no more than five minutes before her name was called.  
   
Their favorite blanket was gone from the couch. Cara frowned, switched on the TV, and went to investigate. It wasn’t in the linen closet, wasn’t tucked somewhere in the bedroom. It finally turned up in the utility closet—freshly washed and dried, perfectly fluffed and smelling fantastic. Cara sniffled, emotion pricking annoyingly at the corners of her eyes as she bunched it in her arms. It was well used, with tattered edges and two small holes near the top. It had been theirs since college, when they first met. They’d studied together under it, made love under it, and watched a whole lot of TV under it. And that was only up to graduation.  
   
Kahlan only washed it on special occasions, given its age. She really had been looking forward to Cara’s return. Cara clenched her teeth, and sighed, and let a single tear slide wetly down her nose. There. That was all she would allow. She dabbed at her eyes with the blanket, cleared her throat, and marched back out to the living room, where she promptly sat down, sprawling on the couch in a very tough manner.  
   
“Cara?” Kahlan called out from around the corner not a minute later. “Come here, please!”  
   
Cara smiled to herself and rose. She found Kahlan with a knitted brow and a hand on her hip as she peered into the open fridge. “I don’t have tomato sauce,” she said. “I could’ve sworn I had sauce.”  
   
“I’ll go pick some up,” Cara said. The store was only a few minutes down the road. She grabbed the keys from the island, and headed for the door.  
   
“Thank you,” Kahlan said absently.  
   
Cara paused, hand on the doorknob. Somehow she was keenly aware that, once she was through the door and closed it behind her, she would be…separated from Kahlan. Somehow, that was unacceptable. She waited to see if the feeling would pass. It didn’t. She turned, slowly, and found Kahlan looking at her curiously. On seeing Cara’s expression, her face softened. “Oh,” she said quietly. “Am I coming with you?”  
   
Cara nodded. Kahlan flashed her a smile, and put down the mixing bowl to head for her jacket hanging beside the door.

**Author's Note:**

> Check [here](http://lots-femslash.livejournal.com/637702.html) for a glimpse at how this Kahlan and Cara might have met way back when.


End file.
